My 9 year old stepdaughter doesn't refuse to DO her homework, but she has been 'forgetting' it or has flat out lied to me & said she didn't have any, when she hid it in her desk. So, in that way... she's not doing her homework. When I asked her why she lied (and I think the forgetting was also a lie & that she just left it in her desk so she didn't have to do it), she told me she didn't want to do it. So, I told her that I don't want to do some of the fun things she enjoys (like baking, helping me with dinner or most recently, carving pumpkins) if she isn't going to do the things we want her to do. It has only been a week and she's been caught in a few lies already... again. I personally think it works better to give it less attention or no attention and shrug your shoulders and say, "I guess you'd rather not watch tv with us, since you don't have your homework done." My husband used to spend half his evening frustrated beyond belief because SD would guess at the answers or write down the wrong answer that made absolutely no sense & DH would erase it, try to explain it & end up yelling at her out of frustration. One evening, he was running around, angry/frustrated looking for another eraser. He was all worked up and SD was calmly sitting on the edge of her bed, humming to herself. I grabbed DH aside & pointed out... if she isn't stressed out or upset over her work not being done, why are YOU? I walked into the room & told SD that daddy is NOT helping you with your work. When it's done correctly, the two of you can sit and play a game or watch TV until bedtime, but if you screw around until bedtime, you will take it back to school unfinished & I will call your teacher & tell her why it's not done. There were a couple of days that she took her homework back to school not done & I talked to the teacher. Her teacher said that it's explained in class & she should not need help, she should know what to do. She then lost her recess and did the work in class. After that, she would get it done correctly the first time.. sometimes with minor corrections, but she'd get it done & want to spend time with dad. While in counseling, she admitted she wasn't doing it right on purpose because it meant dad spent the majority of the evening focused just on her. She didn't seem to care that it was negative attention. He was too frazzled to realize what she was doing & after I pointed it out, he's better at recognizing it. Now, when she comes home and says she has no idea what to do, he knows she wasn't paying attention when the teacher was explaining it. She's had an ongoing problem with talking in class & not paying attention. It really helps to have good communication with the teacher.

I don't think that an overnight ring would be scale or calcium build up -- those tend to occur over time. I think the reaction between some cleaner on the bottom of a bottle and the sealer is the most likely culprit. If you don't know what sealer was used and it hasn't been done for years (and assuming it is a granite that needs to be sealed), I'd remove the old sealer and apply one or two coats of a good penetrating sealer -- and then try to chill out a bit. Your attempt at humor sounds like a heart attack waiting to happen. But then, I love my marble -- and it does etch.

I vote for choice 3, Storage 101. I like the footboard better and the divided drawers on top are nice. I have two daughters, 16-year-old has a natural maple set we bought for her when she was young; the 10-year-old I went a different route with vintage furniture pieces painted white paired with a wrought iron daybed with pop-up trundle. I think white furniture is very versatle for a girl as you can mix and match and add pieces to it overtime and it goes with almost any paint color and/or fabric. I do highly recommend the daybed option as it can be propped up with many pillows and stuft animals and can be a cozy spot to cuddle up and read books with a parent or friend. The popup trundle is also really nice as it brings the other bed to the same height as the first one. My DD really likes being at the same height as her friend when she has sleepovers so the girls can face one another and share secrets instead of one bed higher than the other. Don't be afraid to get just a piece or two if you like it and add other pieces later.

This gift would be dependent upon your relationship with the child and how much you are willing to spend.. This would be great for a family member. I would recommend an American Girl Doll. My daughter and several of her friends each had one and LOVED them. My daughter got her first one a 6 years old and played with it for three years. They are expensive. If she already a doll, the AG books are good too. I donated dd's to her 5th grade class because she was done with them. They stayed checked out. Does she still use crayons? The big box with tons of colors were the envy of my kid's classmates. My dd loved the art books for painting and drawing. She filled up several of them. What about getting her a scrapbook and pens and paper? Or a nice journal and some pretty pens?